reflections on being

i am more human because i feel more like an animal

people are crazy

some bitches ate all my eggs, broke the last two, put them broken back into the fridge. on the wrong shelf. 

being bill bryson

the best thing about copenhagen really is biking around the city.

yesterday we biked past the zoo on our way to a coffee and ice cream shop called Granola in vesterbro. we had to bike up a hill so big, past a corral of ponies, it made your knees tremble. once past summit, veritable freefall. 

on the menu it said Milkshake 40 kr. i asked the attractive waiter, what kind of milkshakes do you have. and he said, any kind. and i joked mint chocolate chip? and asked for a strawberry banana. when it arrived, it had chocolate chips in it.  

gogol bordello

my affection for gogol bordello really began when someone pointed out that the lead singer sounds like the count from sesame street

kun for mig

there are exchange students here who neither attended the danish crash course week nor take the semester danish course now. wandering 6 months in an undecipherable environment is unfathomable to me. 

football

South Africa has refused the Dalai Lama a visa to attend an international peace conference in Johannesburg this week, a presidential spokesman said.

The Tibetan spiritual leader and Nobel Laureate did not receive a visa because it was not in South Africa's interest for him to attend, said Thabo Masebe.

South Africa thinks that, if the Dalai Lama attended the conference, the focus would shift away from the 2010 World Cup -- the global soccer championship it will host next year.

"We cannot allow focus to shift to China and Tibet," Masebe said, adding that South Africa has gained much from its trading relationship with China.

yesterday

i met a man at a sandwich shop who told me that 20 years ago he rode across the united states on a harley davidson

yesterday, the mermaid and i finally met. upon approach, she looks just as disappointing as everyone says she is. she is small, out in an isolated, junky-looking part of the harbor, and not at all an elevated focal point. however, close up, there is something serene. beautiful! since it was raining, the usual crowds and camera queue weren't out - only three plump toddlers sitting on the rocks with their mamas.

of note is a fountain which is just a few steps past the mermaid. it is Gefionspringvandet. this should be the main attraction in copenhagen. i didn't know it existed previous to seeing it. it is the largest fountain in copenhagen and is of Gefion, a Norse goddess, driving a plow of oxen. "Gefion bewitched the Swedish king, who promised to give her as much land as she could plow in one night. Gefion turned her sons into oxen and plowed up all the land on the island of Zealand, on which Copenhagen is situated." it's an impressive, multi-tiered structure. easily the Trevi of Denmark. highly recommend.

Kris drove sophie, andrew, and me around the palace square, passing Amalienborg. Imagine a white BMW with russian plates and ambassador designation taking a spin around the Danish royal winter palace.

morph

old people, to me, are like manatees. 

e-mail from my father

"A good news for you, I found both turtles are still in our pond."

i have these

really deep coughs that make me feel vomity

i have a

fire-dragon fever

accomplishments

On March 17th, exactly two months post-my arrival, I figured out the bus system in Copenhagen.

bike woes part 26

people like to talk about supposed mothers who can summon the brute strength to lift cars off of their trapped babies. 

today, i carried my bike 1.7 kilometers. 

after class today, i went to unlock my bike and my key actually snapped off in my lock. 

wtf. 

the back wheel was locked, so i had to pick up the back of the bike and wheel the bike to the nearest bus stop. apparently bikes aren't allowed on the bus. the bus driver closed the bus doors in my face. 

it was a long trek home. i alternated lifting the back of the bike with dragging the bike (but feared wearing down the back tire) with straight up carrying my entire bike by the frame. i stopped about every 10 feet to gasp for air and shake the knots out of my twisted right bicep. i'm very weak. 

it was very awkward looking like a really bad bike thief. 

people stared but didn't say anything. one man inquired if i had a spare key and i explained to him that my key was broken in the lock and that i was trying to get to the bike shop. he wished me luck. 

i struggled to the shop of the really-nice-bike-shop-man. he greeted me warmly and probably silently wondered how i'd fucked up this time. 

he looked at my bike and exclaimed, "You're still riding that?!" 

he couldn't stop laughing. 

i told him i have no other alternative! 

he cut the lock for me and chuckled the entire time. 

i asked him how much and he said ehhhh 20 kroner. 

20.00 DKK	=	3.48764 USD
Denmark Kroner		United States Dollars
1 DKK = 0.174382 USD		1 USD = 5.73453 DKK

we chatted a bit - i don't think he understood everything i was saying because sometimes he would just nod and smile. he also sold me a 79 kroner lock for 70. 

i like him a lot. i'm glad we're friends. 

true life

i watched true life: i'm pregnant and during the birth i could very vividly feel the blood draining from my face

observing the sabbath

today i got ice cream from a chinese market and then went to mass at a catholic church. 

my house

i just made my schedule for next semester. i'm feeling very homesick and very upset about having to go home. 

the most amazing thing

tonight kris drove us to the beach at midnight and there were eight swans swimming in the still ocean.

technology

everyone's pictures of europe look the same. 

gray skies people smiling in a row and jagged buildings. 

there is something left to be desired. 

like my grandfather, i love photographs. however, i think i would be able to spend more time living  if we didn't so often pause ourselves in order to preserve the moment for the future. i think that already thinking about how this will look in retrospect changes things.  

i miss missy&thomas&jo

i'm too scared to ask to skype my dog

i don't get excited over nothing

i got a free beer tonight for ordering in danish

frederiksberg center

look like a cambodian prisoner of war in my russian visa application passport photo. best.

don't want to go to miseryclass

oh my lord i've become too pale for my foundation

typical

my insecurity is out of control.

it's 1:35 pm good morning

it may feel, according to weather.com, like 31 degrees F outside, but i refuse to put on long pants to take out the trash.  

nub club

i've been observing the cocker spaniels in denmark and i've decided that i'd like to give Missy a tail for her birthday

i can't wait to see her again

uggh

my danish homework is hard. i have half a mind to pull over one of the boys sitting in this library to do it for me.

for him it'd be like...

_____ do you do?
I ___ math at Arhus University
How long have you ____ math?

and then naturally he would think i was dumb as a brick.

from my lovely enchanted remoteness i see you

was so incredibly trashed last night that i jumped in a taxi by myself and paid fifteen dollars to go home and vomit all over the street. still made it to my 9 am class only half an hour late. now i'm sitting in the bibliotek, dumb, drunk, hung over, wearing my massive sunglasses. so LA.

for the first time yesterday, i felt homesick.

business and policy-making in the eu

you can tell how bad a class is by how many laptops there are in the room 

selection & appreciation

i am still endlessly pleased by my rook. all of my possessions should bring me a persistent joy. 

rullende trappe

My friend Sara is from a tiny place in Sweden and she told me that her town put in its first escalator two years ago (almost 200 years after its invention.) 

It was like a main attraction in town and everybody went to ride it up and down.